I-Team: New Orleans coroner cutting bargain rates for autopsies?

Even in death, everything comes with a price -- the casket, the headstone and, if there's reason to investigate what happened, the autopsy.

The WDSU I-Team went price-shopping at the coroner’s office, where some say that the Orleans Parish coroner is charging cut rates while doing three and four times the amount of work as similar agencies in the state.

Some experts in the field of forensic medicine say the price Dr. Frank Minyard is charging for "out of parish" autopsies is suspect -- not even enough to cover expenses. And the extra work means pathologists are exceeding recommended standards.

An outdated facility in Central City is where every autopsy in Orleans Parish is performed. And the man in charge -- since 1974 -- has, at times, had to defend what goes on inside.

Just over a year ago, the I-Team detailed a lawsuit against the coroner. Minyard’s accuser, a man named Joe Georgusis, claimed the Coroner's Office had misclassified the death of Georgusis' son.

The matter is still under litigation and there has been no judgment. However, it's not the only criticism that Minyard has faced.

His office came under scrutiny in 2009 for its handling of the deadly police shooting of Adolph Grimes.

Grimes was shot 14 times, mostly in the back, but the case was not deemed a homicide.

Critics have maintained for years that there are problems within the Coroner's Office, but the I-Team has new numbers that some said are simply shocking.

Former Jefferson Parish prosecutor Check Credo is considered an expert in forensic law in Louisiana and said the figures are “quite striking.”

The National Association of Medical Examiners recommends that each pathologist perform -- at most -- 250 autopsies a year. That, experts say, helps ensure the quality of the work.

But records obtained by the I-Team show those forensic pathologists exceed the "maximum standard" in 2010, 2011 and 2012, performing as many as 1,300 autopsies annually.

Not surprisingly, it makes Orleans Parish the busiest Coroner's Office in the state by far, even though the parish ranks third in population.

In fact, the total number of autopsies performed in 2011 and 2012 in Louisiana's largest two parishes combined, Jefferson and East Baton Rouge, still amount to less than half of what Minyard's office does.

By law, coroners are only legally responsible to perform autopsies in cases of homicides, suicides and suspicious deaths.

New Orleans’ homicide problem is well documented with anywhere from 175 to just under 200 killings annually in recent years, according to NOPD numbers

"To indicate that there are 1,000 suspicious deaths that would require an autopsy would seem to approach the upper limit in almost anyone's category," said Credo.

However, Minyard doesn’t agree with Credo.

"There is so much litigation in the world. Every death is questioned. Over the years, more people are dying, so we've had to do more autopsies," said Minyard.

Records show Minyard’s staff performed autopsies far outside their reach.

In 2011 and 2012, his staff has performed autopsies on about 900 people who died in New Orleans.

An additional 400 autopsies are routinely performed each year for other parishes in the state – as far away as Madison and Winn in north Louisiana.

It's not uncommon for larger parishes to perform autopsies for smaller ones, but those added exams mean extra work for what appears to be an already taxed staff.

More uncommon might be the price Minyard charges for the autopsies.

Minyard confirmed to the I-Team that outside parishes pay $300 per autopsy, a figure that's caught the attention of several other coroners.

"I don't know how you do an autopsy for $300," said Dr. Beau Clark, who is the elected coroner of East Baton Rouge Parish. "The cost for our program is a direct cost analysis. It's what the autopsy cost."

Like Minyard's office, Clark's staff handles out of parish autopsies.

East Baton Rouge performed about 25 last year.

For each of those, Clark's office, as well as the forensic labs in Jefferson and Caddo parishes, charged north of $1,000, more than three times what Minyard bills for out-of-parish autopsies.

"If you look at the real number, it's about $1,100 at the end of the day and that's what an autopsy should cost to do that," said Clark.

"We are trying to serve the common man here and I think $300 is enough. It covers expenses," said Minyard.

But it's also costing the city. If Minyard charged $1,000 for each out-of-parish autopsy, like other forensic labs, he could generate almost an additional $300,000 for his office each year.

"Practicing medicine is not something you can put a price tag on," Minyard told the I-Team.

"I don't know how Orleans and the $300 thing works. If they have a magic formula that they can do it for cheaper and it's legitimate, I'm sure a lot of parishes around here would love to know what that is so we can implement it, but I don't believe that to be the case," said Clark.

Neither does Credo, who expects the New Orleans City Council, the people who control the coroner's purse strings, to be asking a lot of questions.

"I think the City Council would want to know the accounting trail of all money the coroner gets," said Credo.

The WDSU I-Team spoke with a number of experts in the field, beyond those in this report, and they all came back to that $1,000 figure.

Every one of them tells us there's no way to conduct a legitimate autopsy for $300.